The present invention relates to a vehicle transporter for transporting motor vehicles, such as automobiles, inside a shipping container by such means as railcar, truck, ship, or barge.
In 1992, over seven million cars were produced by U.S. and foreign car manufacturers in North America. Automobile factories are generally located long distances from the market where the cars will be sold, and therefore the cars must be transported to their final destination. The majority of cars manufactured in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada are moved by railroad from the factory to a central distribution point, where they are then transported to dealers on over-the-road car carriers, or exported by ship.
At present most vehicles are transported from the factories in bilevel and trilevel autorack railcars, and open highway trailers such as those shown in Baker U.S. Pat. No. 2,492,829 or Fity et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,142. These railcars and trailers are the traditional mode of transport for the car industry, but this transport mode has a number of flaws. Damage due to human contact is a major problem, because the cars have to be driven onto and off of the railcars. Damage caused by acid rain and foreign objects is another reason that transport by rail cars is becoming less attractive to car manufacturers. There is a need for a faster, safer and more economical means of transporting cars from the point of manufacture to the point of sale. There is also a need for effectively utilizing the cargo space which may be available as the railcars and trailers are returned to their point of origin.
A number of attempts have been made to solve the problems discussed above. For example, Gearin et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,935 describes and shows a system for loading and transporting wheeled vehicles inside a shipping container. The system allows the cars to be loaded onto carrier racks outside the shipping container and then placed into the container where they are protected from external hazards. While the transporter disclosed in the Gearin patent has attained some limited commercial success, the system described also has a number of problems.
First, Gearin discloses a highly complex, costly frame structure which requires the use of an external hoist to load and unload cars. The complexity of the system therefore requires up to three people to assist during loading operations.
Second, due to the complex nature of the loading procedure, it takes a significant amount of time to load each shipping container.
Third, the system utilizes a large and bulky loading frame which makes it difficult to work with.
Fourth, the large size of the Gearin loading frame does not lend itself to mass production technology.
Another Gearin patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,916, discloses a collapsible frame system for loading cars into a shipping container. The Gearin frames are designed to collapse so that a number of the frames can be stored in the same shipping container on a return trip to the point of origin. A problem with this design, however, is that collapsing the frame involves a complex, multi-step procedure. Additionally, numerous components must be removed from the frame before it can be collapsed, and these components may be damaged or lost during a return trip to the point of origin.
Another attempt to ship vehicles inside shipping containers has been developed by J. B. Hunt. In the Hunt system, the frame which holds the cars is assembled inside the container, and the cars are then driven into the container and secured onto the frame. The major disadvantage of this system is that after the cars are driven into the container it is difficult for the drivers to exit the car, and there is a danger that the car doors will be damaged when they bang into the container walls.